Wednesday, 8 April 2009

April 8th 2009

With a strong westerly wind and gust of up to 30mph I gave the pond a quick early morning visit before retuning home for some domestics then out again mid afternoon.As dawn broke there were 2 Great-northern Diver off draycote bank along with Grey Wagtail by the valve tower and 8 Dunlin flew over east. It was too windy for any warblers and even the Blackcaps were keeping quiet so the only other birds of note was the Red-necked Grebe in toft bay and 2 Wigeon nearby. John Harris had a mobile Rock Pipit on toft bank and 5 Yellow Wagtail on farborough bank plus Small Tortioseshell butterfly.I spent the afternoon on Napton on the Hill near the windmill and quarry looking north for two hours hoping for a migrating Osprey, Marsh Harrier or Kite to drift over while all the time there was a male Common Redstart 100 yards behind me. I only got to know about it when a dog walker said she had seen a brightly coloured bird with a red tail flitting on the windmill entrance road when she walked past. By the time I got there it was nearer the windmill entrance eventually moving to the left hand side hedgerow. As for flyovers the only one seen was 2 Fieldfare along with six local Buzzards and a Sparrowhawk. On the way home the Hen Harrier was quartering the field briefly near draycote water at 6:45pm and Bob Hazell had good views of it behind rainbow at mid-day.Little Owl flew over my local Sainsburys at 9pm while stocking up for Easter.